Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1887-10-09

placing or using it. The fee of the gas in
spector was fixed at 81. so for each meter
tested, and his headquarters were located
in San Francisco, whence he was supposed
to radiate to all the other cities Of the
State having public gas works.
This Office was lucrative one, and a
story is current in San Francisco that its
incumbent took means to make it pay even
better than it had done in the hands of his
predecessor.
At all events the incumbency Of this
office marked Georges progress from pow
erty to something resembling easy finan-
cial circumstance if not affiuence. 1t was
during this period of leisure, at the ex-
pense of the consumers and producers of
gas that he wrote his Progress and Pow
erty," and some of his acquantances in
California still insist that the gas from the
meters which he inspected leaked into the
book.
| |. n. Choynski was aud is a bookseller
in San Francisco, and withal something of
newspaper man, having had connection
at different times with journalism and be-
ing himself the publisher of a weekly
paper called Public Opinion. He is man
Of some means aud used TO be great ad-
mirer of Henry George. He took great in
terest in Progress and Poverty" going so
far as to read the proofs OF the first Eng
! lish edition and also Of the translation into
the German language. So far did he carry
his admiration for George that he loaued
him considerable sums of money from time
to time, taking his simple, uuindoIsed
| note for the amounts until the notes aggre-
gated some s., 500 He also showed his
| friendship by providing Georges family
with the necessaries of life, giving his chill
dren school books and other things, and
generally playing the Good Samaritan.
When George left San Francisco for the
conquest of the world, his notes. TO ebony
ski were still unpaid, and so they re-
NAMED Some months ago Mrs. Choynski,
heariUg of Georges financial progress III
the East, determined to 90 to New York
and make au effort TO collect the money
due her husband on the notes. The good
ChOynski, out of abundant caution, had
the notes photographed before allowing
his wife to start East with them, and the
sequel proved that he builded better than
he knew. Mrs. Choynski reached New
York in safety with the evidences of the
great reformer's Indebtedness, but, alas
for the frailty of human hopes, she not
only failed to induce George to pay them,
but by some kind Of legerdemain he in
duced her to surrender the possession of
the notes to him, aud so she had to go
back to San Francisco without either
money or notes,
1t may be supposed that Mr.. Choynski
does not tell his story Of Georges periidy
willingly, as he is still hoping against hope,
and trusting that some day Henry George
will have honesty and manhood enough to
pay him; but he makes no secret of the
facts as related, and stands ready to verify
them if occasion requires.
The tale of Georges carer on the Pa
citic coast would be incomplete without at
least reference to the way in which he in
terpreted the relations between capital and
labor and between wage payers and wage
earners under different conditions. AS has
been stated, he learned the printers trade,
and while working at the case none was
more stalwart than he in defense of the
rights OF labor His warmest sympathies
and most ardent aspirations we're those who
were compelled by circumstances to eat
their daily bread in the sweat OF their
| faces
| But his Sacramento experience pat him
! for time in the position OF representa-
tive of capital, and no lightning change
artist ever effected more rapid transfer
nation than he The una nimous verdict
of all printers who worked under his direc-
| ton at Sacramento is that there never was
man over them who took such apparent
delight in riding them down" and max
ing matters generally unpleasant and I'M
comfortable for them as Henry George.
| This disposition, they claim, was shown
not only in an attempt to put wages down
to the lowest possible notch, but also in an
overbearing, dictatOrial, fault finding and
IL am hOlier than thou" manner, which
was terribly exasperating, and what made
it the more CALLING was that 1t came from
a brother of their own craft, who, hut a
short time before, had been on an exact
equality with them aud loud in his denun-
citation of the greedy and selfish employers
who delighted to grind the faces of the
poor. 1t may be confidently asserted that
there is no one more distrusted or cor.
daily detested by California printers
generally than Henry George.
But little remains to be said of his Cali
tOrnla career, except that he LETT the
Golden State with anything but savory
reputation for square dealing, and that his
absence has not tended in any degree TO
rehabiitate him with any except Il few
who never knew him personally, and who
have been blinded to his faults by the
glamOr Of his subsequently acquired liter
airy fame But few people in California
have any belief whatever in his sincerity.
They look upon him as q shrewd, clever
schemer, who will manage il somc way 20
feather his own nest, no matter at whose
expense, and they translate the Anti
Poverty movement az being really de-
viscd to relieve, principally, the pove. ty
of Henry George. They know him to be
ambitious, aud his feeble attempts to re
sist the thrusting upon himself of Poiiti-
cal preterment excite chuCkle at his
smartness and i plying smile for those
who could permit themselves to be de
luded by his feigned reluctance and coy
ness.